The present invention relates to public opinion research systems based on signals transmitted through a communications network, and in particular the telephone network.
Conventionally, public opinion research is carried out either by personal interviews of a selected group of people, or through the distribution of written questionairs or by telephone calls. Further, radio or television listeners may be asked by telephone to answer some questions. However this method is very complex and requires a long time for processing and does not yield immediate and reliable results. Still another problem results from the fact that a telephone system allows only a small quantity of calls at the same time, thereby reducing the possibility of getting a representative sample in a short time. Further, the results obtained are of course subject to human error.